One Last Smile
by RiddleTMR
Summary: Klaus got captured and is left to die in a rundown motel. Ben is there and Diego on his way. Will he be to late?
1. It's alright

His head was swimming, nothing seemed to be making sense anymore. What was up? What was down? What happened?

He tried lifting his head a tiny bit and groaned pitifully. Opening his eyes just didn't seem to work out, they wouldn't open all the way no matter how often he tried. It felt surreal.

What had happened for him to end in this position? What actually was his position?  
He could feel his arms being bound behind his back, sitting on a chair, not being able to move besides his head, what about his legs? Couldn't feel them.  
The head seemed to be bleeding, or at least he guessed that it was blood running into his eyes.  
He tried opening his eyes again, it worked for a bit. Was that Ben over to the right? He looked worried.

Ben's mouth seemed to be moving. Why couldn't he hear anything? Blood was rushing through his head and ears making everything sound like static in a weird way he couldn't explain.  
Oh right, he got captured.  
There was no way to know why he got captured, they didn't seem to think telling him was of any importance. Instead they would cut him up, hit him repeatedly, over and over again.  
At one point there was a crowbar? Maybe. Couldn't be sure anymore, everything was muddled and seemed so far away.  
He wanted to hear Ben's voice, his beautiful brothers voice. It would everything better he was sure of it.

More ghosts seemed to be in his line of sight. When was the last time he had some drugs? At least he couldn't hear them screaming. Small blessings.

Looking around didn't help much. It looked like a simple motel, the interior screaming 'old, dusty not used often'.

It must have been days by now, at least a week, since getting abducted in a random run down apartment he went to get new drugs at. Sometimes he got something to drink and eat, but he hasn't seen his abductors in a while, maybe a day.  
Where they leaving him to die then? Good riddance would be what his other brothers and sisters would say, but not Ben. Never sweet precious Ben.  
He would be able to hug him soon again just like when they were small boys!

A tiny smile found it's way onto his face.  
Ben would always know when he'd need a hug. After the whole mausoleum fiasco? Ben had known something was wrong when no one else seemed to notice. Came into his room in the middle of the night even though he knew it wasn't allowed to be out of your own room after dinner. Just came in and crawled into Klaus bed speaking about his day and what his siblings had done. He would never admit to how touched he was that someone came to check on him that night, that he needed someone to check on him that night. If not for Ben, there probably wouldn't have been a new morning for Klaus.

Ben always knew when something was wrong with Klaus, would make jokes and hug him when everything looked dark and the screaming got too loud. They would listen to music together and once or twice even smoke together, because Ben knew it was helping.  
After Bens death came the harder drugs. Didn't know what else could help at that point with Ben gone. No one else understood him as Ben did.

And at some point Ben was back. As a ghost.  
No one but Ben would know how loud he screamed when seeing his dead brother returned to him, unable to touch him.

He looked up. Ben was still talking. What was he saying? He looked worried.  
Confused Klaus brows furrowed together trying to tell Ben not to worry so much, but unable to know if he actually managed to say something or not. Ben looked even more worried now.

Slowly his vision got slightly darker and he tried to blink it away. It didn't work.  
Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Someone was at the door?

His vision was still growing darker, wouldn't be long until he was completely gone he thought.

Oh, was that Diego? Suddenly coming through the now broken door?  
Klaus smiled and tried to tell him a joke of some kind but no words left his mouth. His vision was mostly gone at this point, he felt so tired.  
Someone was shaking his shoulders, patting him up and down, he barely felt it anymore.  
He felt his cheek being slapped and looked up to complain. Was Diego crying? What was going on?

Diego never cried, the last time he saw him cry was when Ben died.

Oh.

Klaus was dying. Diego was crying. He wouldn't have thought Diego would cry for him, after all the times he already had an overdose it wouldn't be surprising for anyone at this point that Klaus would be dying before all the others. At least that's what Klaus always thought. It seemed pretty simple. The junkie died first. That's it.

No one cared when he was in the hospital before. No one would go to his funeral, if there even was going to be one.  
But Diego was standing in front of him crying, it didn't make sense to Klaus.

His arms were suddenly free and he started to fall forward, unable to hold himself up. A hard chest stopped his fall. Diego.  
Klaus looked up, smiled and touched Diegos face with a shaking hand. "It's alright" is what he wanted to say "I am ready", but no words left his mouth.  
A few tears dropped on his face, he could barely feel his feet and hands anymore. He let his hand drop from Diegos face, no strength to hold it there anymore.

He was so, so tired.  
His eyes fell close again.

Another slap to the face.  
He didn't feel that.  
A smile on his face.

So tired.

Diego was here and crying.  
What a nice last thought to have.


	2. Help him

-eep

beep

BEEP

BEEP

His eyes jerked open suddenly and he felt a bit disoriented at first, not sure where he was.

He groaned and rubbed his eyes slowly not enjoying the beeping sound at all. How annoying.  
Turning to his side he spied the alarm clock on his bedside table and turned it off.

Oh right he was out drinking with Eudora last night and he went home when they got into a fight about his Vigilante night life. He groaned again.

Diego slowly got up into a sitting position and thanked all the gods willing to listen for his foresight of putting a glass of water next to his bed before going to sleep. Quickly gulping down said water he got out of bed for a quick shower, feeling slightly gross.

Water running down his back he wondered what his siblings must be up to. Some he knew what they were doing, some he didn't.

Vanya was most likely playing the violin in her apartment or teaching someone how to play. A soft smile graced his face, listening to her play was always relaxing for him.

Allison was off doing her Movie Star thing most likely. Playing another lead role or another.

Luther was still doing his thing on the moon, where father send him some time ago.

Klaus probably doing drugs somewhere, he hadn't seen him in a while. Normally Klaus checking in once a month or so to ask for money.

Five had been gone for a while, no one knew where or why, but everyone stopped searching at some point.

Ben, well Ben had been dead for some time as well. Klaus telling everyone he was talking to Ben, no one really believing him, since he always like getting some more attention one way or another.

He turned the shower off, got dressed and ate some light breakfast. His new lead on a case had gone cold a few days earlier, he should go see if he could find some new clues regarding that case probably.

A sigh left his lips and he checked his phone quickly before going out and stopped in his tracks immediately.

"He needs help..." he quietly reads out loud a message from an unknown source, "who needs help? What?" It made no sense to him as to who knew his number besides his siblings and Eudora. Quickly forwarding the message to all of them asking if they knew the number or if they gave his number to someone else for some reason.

Time to move out and find a new lead, he thought and made his way out to the streets, asking around for some new information and checking his phone in between.

Eudora, Vanya and Allison didn't seem to know who that might be and told him it might be a joke from someone random, prank messaging or something. Klaus didn't even answer at all, probably too high to even read the message, if he still had his phone and didn't sell it like the last one again, which actually might be the case.

Something just didn't feel right about that message, he checked his phone again. A new message appeared.

"Please help him... who is writing those? Is that an address? It might be a trap." He tapped his chin in thought, go and find out more or leave it? He always was too curious for his own good, so not going just wasn't going to happen. Something had to be wrong, be it a trap or someone actually needing help. It felt wrong to just do nothing about this. But first he had to find out more about this address.

Going to the nearest library with accessible computers wasn't that hard since he was already in the area to begin with and he quickly sat down and typed in the address to see what it would lead to.

A motel? Well it kept sounding more and more like a trap at this point, but what if it wasn't, what if someone needed help, he couldn't just leave it be, he couldn't.

Getting some more weapons and first aid in his car from his apartment was done in under 10 minutes after leaving the library. It was routine at this point.

Writing a message to Eudora telling her where he was going and why, just in case, was something he had done a few times in the past already. Especially if it was something as weird as this. She wrote back almost instantly telling him to be careful and not engage in anything, that he should better leave it for the police to work on this. He told her he would only check out the area and look around, which he would actually do, but he'd also help if help was needed, which he did decidedly not tell her.

It wasn't lying, really. Just omitting some facts.

Off he wrote in his car to the motel address, hoping it might actually not be anything serious.

The address got him a bit further out into the countryside to a small shabby motel, probably not used much by the looks of it. Row after row of old looking and smelling rooms greeted him.

He found a guy sleeping at the register, clearing his throat and watching the man jump would have been funny if it was a normal situation, which this wasn't.

"Has anyone checked in here recently? I am with the police investigating a case in this area." he told him holding up his fake badge.

The man didn't seem to be bothered by police showing up at all, probably not that uncommon here.

"3 rooms are being used at the moment, I wont give out any names but you can have the numbers and knock on the doors if you feel like it." Well that went easier than he thought it would.

Having gotten the numbers of the rooms he went to the first two, knocking and not getting an answer and not seeing anything out of the ordinary through the windows.

The last room however had the blinds shut over the windows. Someone hiding something maybe?

"... -on't worry... 'm alright..." he heard a muffled voice saying, sounding like they were anything but alright. His brows furrowed. Someone was definitely needing his help in there, but he couldn't just rush in, so he tried to listen for something else coming from inside. He leaned closer to the door.

Besides some uneasy breathing, which sounded like someone badly hurt, he couldn't hear anything.

"... it's ok Ben"

Wait.

What?

That was Klaus voice for sure and he sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

This wasn't right, this couldn't be right.

Diegos heart started beating faster and he tried to open the door. This wasn't working.

He didn't bring any lock picks. Figures, just when he needs them he doesn't have them on hand. He needed to get into that room and fast!

Using all his strength he threw his body against the door.

Again and again and again until it finally broke open.

He did not like what he saw.

"Klaus!"


	3. All the pain

"Klaus!"

Finally! Someone arrived!  
Ben could have shouted with happiness, but no one would hear him anyway.

He had been waiting for someone, anyone, to arrive or at least look for Klaus, for a few days now. Watching his brother get tortured was worse than any hell could be. And tortured he was.

Ben had been praying for someone to safe Klaus the whole time, praying to whoever would listen to a dead man. Since that's all he was now, wasn't he? A dead man. Dead for a long time, since he was just barely a teen.

And just like everyone else he didn't believe in Klaus. Just like everyone else he didn't listen to Klaus, didn't see how he suffered.

They all suffered in that 'home', some more some less, but Klaus got out with so many issues that no one acknowledged. They all looked away when Klaus was being weird. "That's just typical Klaus" was a sentence said way too often in that household.

So much pain, so much screaming, that he now could see and hear as well.

The dead were not what he thought they would be.

Some were pretty normal, actually nice to talk to even, but there were also those that would scream and scream and scream and never stop. The faces grotesque and bloody, looking just how they died.

Most would ask for help, but wouldn't say how Klaus should help, he asked sometimes when he had a sober moment. Somehow being high didn't stop Klaus from seeing Ben though. Probably because he wants to see Ben.

Ben tried so hard to get Klaus to stay sober, but he also understood why Klaus did it. Not like they all thought 'for the fun of it', but to drown out the endless screaming and death. He was pretty sure the more sober Klaus got, he could actually smell rotting bodies, he saw him wrinkle his nose a few times when he got close to sobriety. It might also have been the trash he lived next to.

If Klaus didn't stay at Diegos place or a rare visit to Vanya, he was mostly homeless or sleeping at whatever place someone wanted a fuck at. Working never seemed to work out for Klaus either, so getting a apartment of his own was just not an option and he had tried to work a lot before.

Whenever someone hired him he would either get thrown out because they found out about the drugs, or by reading Vanyas books by chance, or by people pointing them towards the book.

Ben knows it's not what Vanya wanted to achieve with her book, but it kept ruining every chance Klaus had to get sober and a stable living environment.

Klaus actually had a place to stay at before he got kidnapped. At least temporary for a month. Not that he needed that now.

He looked to were Diego was frantically checking Klaus over. Now he finally worried. It took too long he thought. It pained him to see Klaus faintly 'smoking' a sign of someone slowly dying, their spirit leaving the body.

Diego freed Klaus of his restraints, making his body fall forward without being held up anymore, no strength left it seemed. Diego was crying.

Klaus looked like he wanted to say something, his lips moving, no words leaving his mouth, just a bit of blood dribbling down. Internal wounds as well?

Klaus was touching Diegos face, leaving a bloody hand print on it. Diego didn't seem to notice.

Ben frowned. Klaus eyes slipped close, not moving anymore now.

Diego screamed Klaus name over and over again. It didn't wake him up anymore, too far gone.

Ben wished he could do something, anything, but being dead denied him that opportunity. He could only watch on as Diego called a number, the hospital it seemed, to warn them to prepare because of him bringing Klaus to them, saying that an ambulance would take to long, how the heartbeat was getting weaker.

Ben could see it, an almost shape clinging to Klaus body still. The time was nearly up.

Carefully Diego lifted Klaus out of the bloody chair and carried him hurriedly out of the motel and to his car, strapping him in as to not move him too much while driving. He would swear at every traffic light he came across. "There's no time for this!"

Diego also tried to call their siblings, no one picking up. Probably busy with more important life things. Klaus has never been important.

Ben stroked over the smoke coming out of Klaus body, heard him sigh because of it. Such a happy little sound from someone dying. Should he be crying? His sense of feeling bad because of death was a bit weird, him being dead already and all.

Of course he didn't want Klaus to die, but it also didn't really change much in the end. No one would miss him would they? And Ben would still be able to talk to him in the end, maybe move on together, away from all this.

He immediately felt bad thinking like that but it was the truth in the end.

Looking over to Diego at the wheel, he thought, maybe Diego would miss Klaus now, or at least feel bad about not being able to safe him.

He grimaced.

Those thoughts were too dark even for him now. It wasn't fair! Any of this!

Klaus deserved better than this!

The Spirit was more tangible now. Almost all out, clinging to the last few places on the body. It would be over soon, at least he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. No more pain.

The sign of the hospital came closer and closer.

Almost there.

Would Diego end up being too late? Was it already too late? Ben hoped for the best, the best for Klaus.

His sweet idiot brother.


	4. Heartbeat

Finally.

He arrived at the hospital.

Diego looked around frantically, carrying a unresponsive Klaus in his arms into the hospital which was closest to the motel he found him in. Klaus looked so close to death already, he was so scared.

They never had the best relationship when they were younger, Diegos need to prove himself against Luther, the number one, the leader, made him unable to see his other siblings clearly. He regretted that now.

No one even noticed Klaus gone.

Is that what their family became? Just nobodies to each other?

A nurse ran up to him and took Klaus from his arms, he didn't want to let go, but he wanted his brother to stay alive even more. Silent tears streaked down his face. He followed the nurse.

She shut a door right in his face, telling him to wait outside.

He wanted to be at his brothers side so badly right now.

It just wasn't fair was it? That Klaus was behind these doors, dying. He looked so thin and fragile, so hurt and alone. He never wanted to see his brother like that again.

Klaus was always more fragile, not because he wasn't strong, oh no he was plenty strong, but the ghosts always got the best of him at some point. He always seemed so scared but whenever someone looked at him he would put on this mask of happiness and confidence. He was just that strong on his own.

He should have talked to him about it, about him seeing these masks as what they were, still are probably. Just masks. Concealing just how scared Klaus was. He prayed for a chance to tell Klaus that he really saw him behind all those masks, that he wanted to know him more. Why did it take him so long to realize that he should talk to him about it?

Does it really need death to be standing next to him to realize that?

He could not lose another brother. Two were already gone, dead or missing, gone.

Diego sat down on a chair outside the door he got left before. Hands running down his face, noticing the blood coating them, Klaus' blood.

He ran to the next bathroom, throwing up and washing his hands clean until they were red from the rubbing instead of his brothers blood. He couldn't look at himself in the mirror.

Sitting down again he wondered if he should try calling his available siblings, Vanya and Allison, would they care?

He didn't call them.

Instead he just waited outside the door until it opened up again, a nurse stepping out. He didn't know how long he waited there, time seemed a foreign concept. Everything feeling unreal and out of focus.

"I-Is he, is h-he alright?" he was almost afraid to ask, his stutter coming to life once again, leaving him choking on words.

He was allowed into the room, Klaus was hooked up to all kinds of machines, a soft beeping filling the room. A heartbeat. He was alive.

Klaus looked so incredibly small in the huge hospital bed, nearly as white as the sheets themselves, his body wrapped in bandages. If not for the beeping telling him otherwise he looked dead.

Diego sat down next to his brother, taking his too cold, unresponsive hand in his own, needing the body contact to ground himself, feeling his brothers pulse under his fingers being a need he never thought he'd have before.

It felt so unreal seeing Klaus not jumping around the room, being his loud self, singing, dancing, filling the room with joy, getting even Diego to smile most of the time even though he kept saying it was annoying, which it wasn't. He was so quiet and pale.

They had cleared Klaus face of any make up he had on before, he looked so young still, even with his gaunt sunken cheeks.

Klaus had stolen Allisons make up early on in their lives. She kept complaining about it, but Klaus was never allowed to buy his own, would get slapped when their father saw him wear any.

Always the one with the best fashion sense of them all, was Diegos secret thought about Klaus appearance. He smiled softly.

Slowly leaning forward, as if afraid of waking Klaus up, he rested his free hand on Klaus face, gently stroking the soft skin, wishing he would actually wake up. Hopefully he would soon. He wanted to see his smile, hear his laugh and hear him talk to him again.

Tell him he could stay over at his place if Klaus wanted to, tell him to come to him with any problem he may encounter, tell him he loved him.

He needed his brother, which he always saw as a younger brother even though they were all born the same day and now one knew which one was actually older, he needed him to know that he loved him.

Klaus breathing suddenly picked up. The heart rate going higher and higher.

Nurses rushed into the room as well as a doctor screaming something, ripping Diego away from his brother. His hand left Klaus'.

He wanted to stay! They couldn't just push him out of the room! He may have yelled that, he dosen't know if he did.

Klaus was jerking on the hospital bed. Tears were streaming down Diegos face again. He wanted his younger brother to be ok!

And then Klaus heart stopped beating.


End file.
